Former lodger says he knew dungeon dad had raped daughter

London, May 4 : A former lodger at the home of dungeon sex slave Elisabeth Fritzl and her school friends has admitted that he knew that Josef Fritzl raping her, it emerged on May 3.

However, he didn't contacted police or social services either before or after she disappeared.

Joseph Leitner, one of sex beast Josef Fritzl's former lodger, told how Elisabeth fled home at 17 but was found by father-a year before he imprisoned her.

"I knew Sissi (Elisabeth's nickname) was being raped by her father before she disappeared. I knew her best friend very well and she told me what a monster Josef was- and what he had done to Sissi," the Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

"They came up with a plan to run away together. It was in 1983.

"Elisabeth packed her bags and left the house, and the two went to Linz but also spent some time in Vienna.

"Josef was furious and eventually found Elisabeth and dragged her home. Sissi was banned from having anything to do with my friend again.

"Her mother also made sure of that. She banned Elisabeth from seeing her-and watched her carefully to make sure they were kept apart.

"When Elisabeth vanished again just a year later, my friend thought she had run off again. She never said anything because she was scared. It wasn't only Elisabeth that was terrified of Fritzl, my friend was as well. That was why she kept quiet for so long," the former lodger said.

Elisabeth spent 24 years trapped in the cellar of her family home, bearing seven children through her father's forced sexual attentions.